Russia’s National Security Adviser Nikolai Patrushev and deputy foreign, justice and public security ministers arrived in Jerusalem Thursday, Feb. 1, along with senior military and intelligence generals. They came three days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sat down in the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin. The Russian visitors are the guests of Israel’s National Security Council chief Meir Ben Shabat. They are to hold talks with their Israeli counterparts on questions relating to Iranian’s military presence in Syria and Lebanon and the amendments Israel seeks for the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, of which Russia along with the US and four other world powers were signatories.
No announcement was made on the duration of the high-ranking Russian visit.
DEBKAfile’s diplomatic sources note that it is unprecedented for a delegation of such eminence to get organized for a foreign mission in so short a space of time. Putin must have expedited it for three reasons:

He told Netanyahu that the Iranian and Syrian issues could not be settled in a single conversation and called for a thorough appraisal. To this end, he was sending a high-profile delegation to Israel for a thorough threshing-out of all their aspects.

Putin saw his chance to create daylight between Israel and Washington’s current posture in Syria which is confrontational.

Participants in the Jan 29-30 Sochi conference on Syria, which failed, were to be shown that Moscow has multiple options to pursue in Syria.

DEBKAfile reported earlier in this space:

The Trump administration’s abrupt flight from its understandings with Moscow on Syria left Netanyahu with a blank agenda for his Moscow talks with Putin on Monday, Jan 29.
This about-face will be examined, with new revelations, in the coming issue of DEBKAWeekly out on Friday, Feb. 2
DEBKAfile reports exclusively that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been well primed for his meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He had come away from last week’s Davos Economic Forum and his talks with President Donald Trump and European leaders with a strong impression of amity between Trump and Putin, endorsed by key European leaders, on two critical issues: that Syria’s political transition from war to peace would lead to Bashar Assad’s ouster along with the eviction of all foreign armies, including those of Iran and Hizballah. This was the essence of the “non-paper’ drawn up by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in conjunction with Russia’s plans for Syria. Moscow planned to put this formula before the Sochi Syrian peace conference on Monday, Jan. 29.
But between the end of the Davos forum on Friday, Jan. 26 and Sunday night, Jan. 28, this deal was blown sky high in Washington, just hours before Netanyahu set out for Moscow. His agenda was to have centered on obtaining a Russian guarantee that the new military and political understanding with the Americans left Israel’s military with freedom of action in the skies of Syria and Lebanon among other topics. But in the light of the turnabout in Washington, he had to rethink his agenda. So, shortly before his plane took off from Tel Aviv, Netanyahu performed a second last-minute switch of accompanying advisers, replacing Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevi with an officer of lower rank.

The issue of a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria is always on every Israeli agenda. But Netanyahu had already repeatedly made Israel’s position known on this to Putin. He already knew that Israel was determined not to let Lebanon be used as an Iranian missile base, and this matter was not in any case at the forefront of Russian strategists’ concerns.DEBKA Weekly 787, out on Feb. 2, brings you exclusive rundowns on the dynamics behind the Trump administration’s sudden decision to ditch its understandings with the Russians on Syria and Iran, on Moscow’s role, on the Saudi crown prince’s stance, and how these elements came together to scuttle the Sochi peace conference, which Putin called as part of his campaign for reelection in March.If you are not already a subscriber, click here.

The world is not black and white. It was economically beneficial for Russia to have broad international sanctions against Iran. Iran is one of the main competitors for Russia in both the Central Asian and European energy markets. Russia has never had as good a market position in both areas as during that time. The reason Russia supported the nuclear agreement is because they don’t want to have another (near) neighbor with Nuclear Weapons and they believed that the agreement would guarantee that, which made it worthwhile to them. If it can be shown that the agreement is dysfunctional it is no stretch of the imagination that, if relations between the U.S. and Russia improve, that they could support sanctions on Iran again, or at the very least not sell them more advanced weapon systems. China will not support the renewal of sanctions on Iran ever again because they have increased business with Iran so stupidly much, but that is not the case with Russia.

Israel has never invaded a country and stayed. The Muslims do it all the time and then that land becomes forever Islamic. The Iranians will not tolerate taking a back seat. They want conquest and are using the Russians as their proxy army to do the really heavy lifting. Eventually the Russians will catch on and will confront the Iranians. That will lead to more conflict in the blood-soaked failed state of Syria.

The best thing Trump can do is join with Israel to make it extremely difficult and dangerous for the Iranians. Every more should be thwarted and every shipment destroyed. The Russians will not get in the way and; in fact, they will invite such actions because then America will be doing their heavy lifting.

the other thing that must be done is to make sure the Kurds get victory against Erdogan and that they are guaranteed a homeland. They need to win and to act as a counterbalance to the spread of other more sinister forms of Islam.

“the other thing that must be done is to make sure the Kurds get victory against Erdogan and that they are guaranteed a homeland. They need to win and to act as a counterbalance to the spread of other more sinister forms of Islam.”

I truly believe the end game for Russia is to have unfettered access to the Mediterranean sea, with the idea that it could open up highly successful shipboard trading with the rest of the world. China has perfected this in the last few years with container shipping. If Putin can perfect this through Turkey and Syria, and give the ships that would ply Russian wares free access to ports in Turkey and Russia through the Black Sea, he could and would leave a huge and lasting footprint on the economic future of Russia. There is an old saying about trying to figure out why most people do what they do, “Follow the money”, and by doing so, Putin is on the right track to achieve what I perceive as his end game.

So what is in your plan for anyone other than Russia and why should we care about Russia? If Russia could guarantee the absence of Iran-Hezbollah and ISIS groups in the region, that would be an incentive to allow your scenario to take effect but, as it stands, Russia has enabled Iran-Hezbollah. I have nothing against Russia in the region because it has the potential to ensure less Islamist influence but the Russians are so sleazy that they will allow terrorism provided it is not directed at them – they use terrorists as proxies just as the Arab world uses its 70-year “Palestinian” refugees as perpetual terrorists against the “infidels” to expand the conquest and rid the region of Mo’s enemies.

Day after day the syrian scenario gets more complicated… To get rid of Iran-Hezbollah will be very difficoult for Israel… Up to now, each time Israel attacked targets in Syria, Russia hasn’t shoot at IDF raiders and Syria-Iran-Hebbollah have been holding their reprisal with surface-surface missiles… I don’t think this situaton will last for ever… Turkey might do again the “mistake” to shot down a plane and this time it could be a USAF one… There’s a high probability of clashes between the many players…

So this anti-Russian campaign in the West is driven by Israel, hmmm? Maybe.
So the delegation is coming to surrender and fulfill Israeli demands, hmmm? Maybe not.
If you have NO CLUE what’s going on, why are you writing articles?

Whatever Israel, US and Russia agree on will fall apart because the Middle East is not post WWII Europe or Japan i.e. it is an undisciplined, tribal mess. The conflicts in the region will not stop even if Russia has the most noble plans (and it definitely doesn’t) for every poor little Arab or Persian in the region. This low grade WWIII will continue until one of these poor little Arabs or Persians blows up a nuclear device hopefully not in Israel and most likely in Europe satisfying Europe’s firm commitment to suicide. The reprisal will stop the conflicts in the region for awhile but not forever. That is the sad reality of Ishmael living by his sword. It is not clear whether Israel’s and the US elites following Europe’s guilt of two world wars will march these 2 countries into self-annihilation or whether common sense of the uneducated mob will shake these “professors” off the pages of history for the time being!

“So this anti-Russian campaign in the West is driven by Israel, hmmm? Maybe.
So the delegation is coming to surrender and fulfill Israeli demands, hmmm? Maybe not.
If you have NO CLUE what’s going on, why are you writing articles?”

@secret source,

Please read your post very carefully as it simply makes just no sense at all!
In reference to your very last sentence (especially the mentioning of having “NO CLUE”), you may want to ask yourself why YOU wrote the post quoted above!

That would be a fine thing but do you really think that the Euro-Pussies have the spine to stand up to anything or anyone? History suggests that the Euro-Softness doesn’t wake up until their beds are on fire.

“The nuclear installations in Iran will soon be destroyed by NATO forces.”

@Jay Silveman,

Turkey is a member of NATO and they seem to like Iran.
NATO members in Europe sighed a Nuclear Deal with Iran which they seem to like since the consequences of that “deal” will only affect one country in the Middle East and likely not Europe so they consider it to not be their problem. Besides, they’re now too busy trading with Iran because of that “deal”!